re: How do you feel about Mississippi's "Confederate Heritage Month"?

620,000 American deaths is not a "peaceful secession movement".

Also, you act as if the south declared in one voice to secede. There was a pretty substantial portion of the population that were never given a voice in the matter. As a matter of fact, they were just referred to as property.

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BamaGradinTn

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Are you a yankee or a soft arse millennial ?

I don’t feel strongly either way. I do have lots of relatives that fought and died for the south and it wasn’t that long ago, so I also don’t like just spitting on their graves either.

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620,000 American deaths is not a "peaceful secession movement". 

Also, you act as if the south declared in one voice to secede. There was a pretty substantial portion of the population that were never given a voice in the matter. As a matter of fact, they were just referred to as property.

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You missed my point entirely. The War Between the States settled the matter of secession once and for all: if a state or states voluntarily attempted the leave the Union, they would be subjected to war and violence. The purpose of the war was to centralize power in a large federal government, which began during the war and has continued since.

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The purpose of the war was to centralize power in a large federal government, which began during the war and has continued since.

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I believe in the right of States to secede if they wish to do so, if they are not seceding under the pretense to deny their citizens of the God given rights.

These days I am not sure why any state would want to do so given the prosperity of the country as a whole, but who knows.

The civil war wasn't fought over some power grab of the federal government. The federal income tax wasn't even established until WW1. All in all the south went to war to in order to retain "free property rights" - which in reality was trampling on the rights protected under the constitution of all American citizens.

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I respect that, I don't think that would be fair to them either. They were doing their best with the information that they had in the time that they were living.

That being said, you can respect those who died without celebrating the "Confederate Heritage". That's really my POV.

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This is a complicated subject for me that I’ve tried to just let go. With influence from a lot of family members growing up I was fascinated by the civil war. It was basically the only thing Mississippi had been a part of that was relevant.

I got told tales of glory and valor that were embellished, and the bad parts were not mentioned. I loved to read when I was a kid and had several pro confederate books, including ones with battlefield maps and the like. I owned confederate flags and never once thought anything was wrong with them.

I was still pretty young when Ole Miss banned the flags but I remember it well. My grandmother kept mine for me and would always hand it to me when we got to our seats. It was a confusing time for me because I didn’t understand what people wanted them banned.

Growing up an Ole Miss fan and being old enough so see it come full circle is just difficult on your psyche in general. I’ll always think of Ole Miss football seeing the battle flag and hearing Dixie. It is just something I can’t beat out of my brain. I fully understand now of course why things had to change, but it was tough as a kid seeing the things I cherished gradually being taken and not fully understanding why.


Fast forward to now and I am nearly 30. The blinders of the infallible lost cause are off. I have read countless material from both sides and feel strongly I can be as close to as impartial on this topic as possible. I no longer own any confederate memorabilia, and I am very cautious on who I even speak to about the war and very careful with my words.

Long story short is I got too old to blindly believe the old fairytales, but at the same time the run of the mill confederate soldier is a fascinating piece of history. The odds they faced, the brutal conditions, as many have mentioned the vast majority weren’t personally fighting for slavery, etc., no matter what I do those men will always have my admiration and a soft spot in my heart.

I’ll tell you what I am infinitely more ashamed of as a Mississippian: the century that followed the war. That is when truly evil men did truly evil things.

So I’ll close with this. This is a topic that will always be near and dear but I keep it private. I live, work, and have companionships with black people and that is important to me. I live in a town that is 80% black and it warms my heart how well we all get along. I think most of rural Mississippi is like this today. Ignorant people can say what they want about us, but we walk the walk more than anywhere else in this country when it comes to peacefully coexisting, and although many don’t know and don’t care I am personally proud about it and how far we’ve come.

Also I am sorry for the gigantic post, but the fact is, especially older people, have not gotten over this stuff. This intense confederate shaming is a very recent phenomenon, especially here.

I do not think you (not so much you nearly as much as others) or anyone else who is extremely condescending towards these people are doing any bit of help. In fact quite the opposite, it causes people to dig in and resent you.

I don’t know what the solution is, but i guarantee if the state flag were in the ballot again today it would remain the same, just like last time. Basically as a middle finger, because if you’re gonna repeatedly get kicked in the gut while you’re down at least you’ve got your pride and your middle finger. This is how these people feel, you know it, I know it. Imo the best path forward is let sleeping dogs lie and eventually the die hards will die off.

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OBReb6

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Most thoughtful post I've ever read on this board. Thanks for sharing.

As I’ve gotten older I realize how shocking it is as well but at the same time there is the part of me that thought nothing was wrong with it. It’s an interesting dynamic.

Same. Why even? What purpose does serve? We are already divided as a country as much as it can get.